124: Chapter 124 A National-Level Financial Crush

In just over a year, the size of the Umbrella Committee had snowballed, rapidly expanding to thirty-two people.

However, no matter how much the outer circle expanded, the core standing at the pinnacle of the power pyramid would always consist of only those nine founding members.

In the future, not even a single chair would ever be added to this core circle.

As for the remaining outer members, they could not even be considered 'official' in any sense.

Their only value in existing was to help Umbrella expand its territory in various fields and increase the organization's influence.

To put it bluntly, in the eyes of the Committee, they were nothing more than a batch of high-quality consumables that could be discarded at any time.

...

At this moment, inside Lin Manor.

As the second-in-command of Umbrella, 'Mr. J'—namely John Rockefeller—was sitting in the parlor, putting forward a bold suggestion:

"Bruce, I think that taking advantage of this national economic crisis, we might be able to test the waters and pull that old wolf J.P. Morgan into the Committee's circle!"

In the spacious and luxurious parlor, there were only the two of them, one old and one young.

Lin Tian slowly picked up the premium coffee Helen had just brewed, took a sip, and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the armrest of the leather sofa.

He pondered for a moment, then looked up and asked in return:

"Uncle Rockefeller, why do we have to provoke J.P. Morgan? As far as I know, you and he have always been like fire and water on Wall Street."

After being conditioned by the medical pod, Rockefeller, whose face looked at least a dozen years younger and who usually relied on special effects makeup to hide it from outsiders, couldn't help but laugh out loud upon hearing this:

"Bruce, business is business. I never carry personal emotions. In my eyes, there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who can be used, and those who cannot."

"In the business world, Morgan and I are indeed deadly rivals; neither of us can swallow the other. But... if it's on a transcendental platform like Umbrella, the situation is completely different!"

"Oh?" Lin Tian put down his coffee cup, his tone carrying a hint of disapproval.

In his view, recruiting J.P. Morgan to join would not bring any substantial improvement to Umbrella's current situation.

What's more, given the greed and cunning in that old fellow Morgan's bones, once he was let in, he might stir up some power struggles internally, needlessly increasing internal friction.

However, out of respect for this business predecessor, Lin Tian did not interrupt immediately, but patiently listened to him continue.

"Bruce, you can't just look at Morgan alone. You have to see clearly the 'Morgan Alliance' behind him! That is a massive capital monster bound together by dozens of top banks, insurance giants, and trust companies!"

"This group of people is the true capital foundation of Wall Street! Their combined power is even enough to sway the political direction of the entire USA government!"

Lin Tian was naturally well aware of this.

But he still stuck to his view and pointed out incisively:

"Uncle Rockefeller, you are completely right. But don't forget, this economic crisis is a major reshuffle! Barring any surprises, those banks, insurance companies, and trust companies in the Morgan Alliance with poor risk resistance will collapse in droves."

A cold light flashed in Lin Tian's eyes. "When the time comes, your Citibank, combined with my Wells Fargo, will have more than enough power to carve up and devour all the massive industries they leave behind like vultures! Why should we share a piece of the pie with him?"

Hearing Lin Tian's highly aggressive words, Rockefeller did not refute them, but quietly posed a fatal question:

"Bruce, have you ever thought about it? Once his subordinates go bankrupt on a large scale, Morgan will absolutely not sit idly by! To protect himself, this old wolf will definitely go mad looking for a thicker leg to cling to!"

Lin Tian's hand, which had just picked up the coffee cup, suddenly froze in mid-air.

He instantly grasped the subtext of Rockefeller's words.

"Your meaning is...?!"

Rockefeller nodded with a grim face and said in a deep voice:

"Actually, regarding this economic crisis sweeping the nation, I am over ninety percent certain to assert: this is absolutely a long-premeditated financial strangulation launched against our USA by those old-money European capital cartels, especially the British Empire!"

"The reason is very simple. Without this sudden crisis, according to our economic growth rate over the past two years, the USA's Gross National Product this year would have surpassed the British Empire's for the first time in history, claiming the number one spot in the world!"

Having said this, he paused to give Lin Tian time to digest it, and then continued to throw out heavyweight data:

"Some time ago, I specifically had Citibank's think tank produce a ten-year bilateral trade assessment report between the British Empire and the USA."

"The report shows that over the past decade, our total commodity exports to Britain have been skyrocketing at a terrifying annual rate of fifteen percent! In fact, as early as around 1883, our trade with Britain had already achieved a comprehensive surplus."

"Bruce, you calculate it carefully. Over the past decade or so, how much hard-earned money in actual gold and silver has our USA ruthlessly sucked out of the British Empire?"

After hearing this.

In Lin Tian's mind, he instantly thought of that ancient, disaster-ridden country on the other side of the Pacific Ocean—the Qing Empire.

Back then, when the Qing Dynasty did business with the British Empire, the situation was exactly the same.

Relying on its world-renowned silk, tea, and porcelain, the Qing Dynasty earned a massive silver surplus from the British Empire every year.

Watching the silver in its treasury pour into the Qing Dynasty like flowing water, the British Empire was anxious and stamping its feet.

To reverse this trade deficit, these bandits rolled their eyes and began to ruthlessly and madly smuggle a highly toxic opium called 'Fushougao' into the Qing Dynasty.

This directly led to the depletion of the Qing Dynasty's treasury, a massive outflow of silver, and ultimately triggered that humiliating war.

History is always strikingly similar.

Isn't today's USA just like the Qing Dynasty of the past?

With the crazy explosion of the USA's industrial strength, a massive volume of high-quality and inexpensive manufactured industrial goods flooded into the European market like a tide.

Cars, heavy machinery, high-quality steel... these things had already become rigid demands that Europeans simply could not live without.

The USA's economy had finally ushered in a complete takeoff!

Thus, the British Empire, sitting on the throne of the world hegemon across the ocean, watched its former colony now grow fat and wealthy, its eyes turning red with envy.

But facing the USA, which had a massive population of nearly seventy million and an already extremely terrifying industrial capacity, no matter how arrogant the British Empire was, it was impossible to directly send a few warships over to fight a hot war like they did against the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, this bunch of old foxes from the British Empire, who had played with finance for hundreds of years, chose another, even more bloodless method—financial warfare!

In the field of financial warfare, the British Empire was a grandfather-level existence.

The USA's shallow financial tactics were simply as laughable as children playing house in their eyes.

By simply flipping through the ledger, they easily pinched the most fatal weakness in the USA's economic system.

Rockefeller even had reason to suspect that this financial tsunami sweeping across America was fundamentally a war of national strangulation carefully planned by the British Empire to contain the rise of the USA!

After listening to Rockefeller's analysis.

Although Lin Tian had no conclusive evidence in hand, his intellect told him that this possibility was extremely high!

One must know that in this era, the relationship between the United States and Britain was not as close and intimate as in later generations.

For the USA people today: an Eagle who doesn't hate The British is not a good Eagle!

Similarly, in the eyes of those arrogant aristocratic lords of the British Empire, the people of the USA were just a bunch of country bumpkin upstarts who could never make it to the grand stage.

The friction between the two sides over international trade and tariff barriers had long reached a fever pitch.

The most typical example was the steel trade.

In the early years, the USA's own steelmaking technology was poor. To protect domestic enterprises, the government introduced an extremely rogue protective tariff policy.

It stipulated that all steel imported from Europe must pay a punitive tariff of fifty to one hundred percent!

This cut directly caused European steel to completely lose its price advantage in the North American market, selling for more than gold.

But now, the tables had turned.

With the successive rise of Lin's Steel, Carnegie Steel, and Bethlehem Steel, the steel production capacity of the USA had reached an extremely terrifying level, conversely becoming the number one supplier to the European market.

Now the British Empire was displeased and immediately retaliated in kind, announcing heavy taxes on imported steel from the USA!

In the end, the two sides were at loggerheads, and the major newspapers of both countries, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, launched lengthy and repetitive mudslinging matches against each other.

Not only that, USA enterprises operating multinationally in London suffered no shortage of various difficulties and deliberate obstacles from the British Empire's officials.

Even the London branch of 'Lins Telegraph Communication Company' under Lin Tian's name was suddenly raided by the British Empire's Anti-Monopoly Investigation Bureau some time ago under an extremely absurd pretext.

Faced with this provocation, Lin Tian's way of responding was extremely domineering.

He didn't even bother to wrangle in the London courts and directly ordered: use it or don't, I'm not serving you anymore!

Then, with a wave of his hand, he forcibly shut down all transoceanic operations of the London branch of Lin's Telegraph, cutting power to all telegraph machines and putting them on strike!

This kind of hardcore counterattack, which completely ignored the standard playbook, instantly left the London officials completely dumbfounded.

One must know that the second-generation wireless telegraph technology in Lin Tian's hands was a globally unique monopoly business!

As soon as Lin's Telegraph shut its doors, if the British Empire wanted to send an urgent telegram to the USA or its Asian colonies, they could only re-enable that obsolete wired undersea cable, which would delay things by at least several days back and forth!

Most fatally, the shipborne wireless rental contract that the British Empire's Royal Navy had just negotiated with Lin's Communications Company also fell through directly because of this matter.

Now the high-ranking officers of the Royal Navy were completely furious. A group of generals pointed at the noses of the bureaucrats in London City Hall and cursed loudly:

"Do you pig-brained fools want our Royal Navy's Invincible Fleet to drag hundreds of nautical miles of cables into battle to fight the enemy in future naval warfare?!"

Under the combined pressure of the military, capitalists, and ordinary citizens, the London authorities completely backed down and sheepishly dropped all investigative charges.

After being closed for only three days.

The London branch of Lins Telegraph Communication Company reopened its doors for business under the desperate pleas of the entire society of the British Empire.

When this gratifying news reached home, Lin Tian's prestige ushered in another epic surge.

He was even crowned by the fanatical public with the title of 'The USA's Bravest Anti-British Fighter'!

It could be seen from this that the popular sentiment between the two countries had long been like fire and water, completely incompatible.

So, Lin Tian absolutely had reason to believe that even if this economic crisis was not masterminded by the British Empire, they certainly had a hand in fueling it behind the scenes!